Welcome to Teague, Texas

Have you ever wondered if a city or town has your last name somewhere in the USA? I had heard of a town called Teague, Texas some years ago but had never known much about it until recently. About 132 miles north of Livingston, TX, just two and a half hours from where Karen and I established our new address, is the town that bears my last name. So, as we travel north to visit my cousin Dina outside of Dallas we made the pilgrimage to this small, proud Texas town.

In 1905 this town was a drowsy country village called Brewer - named for the 1835 land grantee Green Berry Brewer. It had been settled in the 1870's.

Prosperity rolled into Brewer in 1906, however when the Trinity & Brazos Railroad selected it as a site for the railroad shops and as the main division point between Houston and Fort Worth. The town was speedily renamed for the Teague family, relatives of the noted railroad builder B.F. Yoakum.

In August, 1906, promoters held a town lot sale. Customers arriving on a special train were met by a band playing "Dixie" and before the day was over, they had consumed 5,000 pounds of barbecue!

By 1907 Teague was transformed, dozens of brick building were under construction, population soared and the ten thousand club advertised "10,000 by 1910". Teague's first opera house was soon projected, and citizens once watched two merchants struggle happily to the bank carrying large baskets of "greenbacks".

Our middle son, Erik Teague worked for BNSF as a conductor and engineer so the irony wasn't lost on both Karen and I as we walked the sleepy streets of this train town.

During the first decade of the 1900's, population hovered at 5,000 but then momentum decreased. With the decline of passenger train service, Teague began to dwindle. Today it is again a quiet town and the railroad depot-office building is a museum.

We had to find some suitable souvenirs before we left town. If you're ever traveling between Dallas and Houston on Highway 45, make sure to stop by my small, proud Texas town.